Smith's Cove Exploration and Discoveries 1970

[Jo]

Here are Joy's two images.

The first relating to the marriage marks used in structure assembly:



Here's the second image relating to British mining practices:



A great compliment to Robert's pictures - thanks for sharing with us Joy

[Jo]

I think I've managed to find an image of the box which Joy suspects may have been used by child miners, or minor miners, if you will.

I need to find a bit more context for this image, however my notes are at home. Hopefully I'll have a bit more detail to add to this thread later this evening. In the meantime, here is the box...

[D'Arcy]

Hi Robert:
This is way off topic, but the photograph of your mom by the side of the pit and again on the bulldozer had been bugging me for some time because she looked so familiar. Then today I happened to see an article in my local paper that contained a 1971 photograph of Jill St. John who was a Bond girl in "Diamonds Are Forever". OMG, that is your mom, or a very close facsimile thereof! (I hope you were fortunate enough to inherit your looks from her).
Cheers,
D'Arcy

[RRD2]

That is very kind of you, D'Arcy. My mother did win several beauty contests in Southern California. She would be the first one to tell you, however, that she is a farm girl at heart. She grew up in a family with 7 siblings - 5 brothers and two sisters. When WW2 broke out, all of her brothers went to serve and all of my uncles held various positions in the armed forces, Army and Navy. As all of the men were gone in 1942, somebody had to milk the cows and that task fell to my mother, as a teenager, twice a day. There is a great photograph and article on the front page of one of the local papers showing her on a milking stool with a Holstein in front of her big smile on her face. She was 16 years old and simply beautiful at that age. The responsibilities were huge for everyone during the war and everyone was forced to grow up very fast - both soldiers at 17 years old and those hard working women that helped in various capacites on the homefront.

I know that you spoke with my father and wrote letters to each other, but did you ever have the chance to speak to my mother, way back in the '70's?

I wanted to comment on the image of the British chidren at hard labor in the mines with a candle as a head lamp. That must have been almost unbearable to do all day long as a young child. Wow, how times have changed! These days, many local kids are concerned about their texting speed, among other things. Consider these young people in the UK, or what the greatest generation did for us as 16 and 17 year old kids during WW2. The disparities could not be more profound.

There is nothing so perpetual as change.....and things are changing faster now than ever before, starting with advances in technology. Some of it and the increases in new capabilities are mind-blowing, to say the very least. If you tried to explain some of the new technologies to a person in 1942, they would either lock you up or take away all of your nickel sci-fi pulps. What will it be like in 2030 - 2050, assuming that we make it that far...?

Have a great weekend,
Robert

[n4n224ccw]

From the previous illustration, notice the skids for easy sliding and the attached rope or chain, with and inferred (and out of view) anchor point on the box.

Notice both skids and an anchor point are absent/missing from the Smith's cove box.

I have attached the two photos of the box for the purpose of showing two different configurations. You should notice none of the sections appear to be attached in any permanent way to any other section. There were no iron nails or any other method to fasten the sections together.

Notice the following

In both photos section 3 is supported by a rock thus it cannot be attached to either 1,2,or 4

In photo 1, section A3 is on top of section A4, while in photo 2, B3 is beside section B4, see intersection IA34 and IB34.

In photo1 the length of A1 = A2, in photos B1 is much longer than B2. The reason is due to the missing section being removed for testing.

In photo 2 B1 shows a hole, A1 does not. Either the hole does not go all the way through, or A1 and B1 were swapped between photos.

It is difficult to tell the position of A6 and B6 in each photo and the relationship to other sections.

I personally think the section may have been found loose, rather than in a solidly formed structure; thus arranged after discovery ito give the appearance of a box.

[mutakwe]

Hi N4n!

How are you? The fact that the front of the "sled" is angled as it is gives one the idea that it was made to plow through material. However, there is a second use of this contraption that came to mind, but that is if, there was positively no tow hook up on the front. Therefore, do you think this may have been a sluice box? I can't remember if I saw the arguments for or against this before, but it occurred to me that this may have been as such. A sluice box, for anybody that wishes to know, was an important device used in the separation of heavy metals from the gangue rock using the principal of gravity. Water containing the host rock then, would be pumped through the contraption and the heavier materials would separate out. But usually there were riffles in sluice boxes to facilitate this.

Your thoughts please.

Joy

[morpho79]

What is the round hole in that box doing there? It's plugged in one of the pics, and unplugged in the other?